Goodnight, Johnny!

While Tucking Us In, He Also Influenced Political Opinion, Show

Careers And Men's Fashion

He's More Than A Comedian

Johnny Carson is just a comedian, after all. Just a talk-show host, just a guy with a steady job. But in some sneaky, surprising way, he was always more than a flickering image on the tube.

Over three decades, his influence extended into realms that had little or nothing to do with his role as a late-night talk-show host. He made and broke show business careers; he influenced men's fashion; he reflected and helped shape political opinions; and he even served as unseeing witness to some very, very private moments.

Here is a look at some of Carson's impact -- and why it may be time to move on.

The kingmaker

How big an impact did Johnny Carson have on America's taste in entertainment?

Television variety shows died out around 1970, and for almost 15 years there weren't any other showcases for comedians and singers to rival "The Tonight Show."

"Either his producer or [Carson] had the pulse of what was going on," says Landerman. "They knew what was good. ... I never saw an act on any of his shows that didn't deserve to be there. ... It wasn't like the Sullivan show, where he had to put people on and there were acts that were essentally fillers."

Landerman considers "The Tonight Show" a very tough showcase.

"You've got five or six minutes at the most. Stop and think: Your whole career is on the line," he says.

Landerman remembers booking comedian Charlie Callas, pre-Carson show, for shows that paid under $1,000. After one appearance on the Carson show, he says, Callas was in a completely different league.

It was always possible to become famous and successful in other ways, says Landerman, "but if you did well on the Carson show, you

had a hell of a start."

Pulse of America

For years, a barometer for whether a politician was sinking -- or was sunk -- was how he fared on NBC after 11:35 p.m.

Johnny Carson is generally credited with establishing late-night political jokes as part of the country's mainstream political dialogue.

If that sounds an overstatement, take the example of Robert Balkin, editor in chief of "The Hotline," a Virginia-based news service that sends a daily political report electronically to hundreds of customers across the country.

The Hotline includes serious news and commentary from sources such as The New York Times and "Nightline," but it also provides a transcript of the previous night's political jokes by hosts such as Carson, Dennis Miller and David Letterman.

"We understand the importance of these jokes," says Balkin. "This is part of the political debate, folks. You may have been sleeping during it, but there is an awesome number of people who are watching it and nodding their heads and telling these jokes to their buddies over the water cooler the next day."

There were other political jokesters before and during Carson's "Tonight" reign. Some made jokes that were more sophisticated, pointed and adventurous. But none had Carson's instinct for what middle America is thinking and what it will respond to, Balkin says. "Carson set the standard."

Balkin says Carson was less likely to pick up early on political issues than his anointed successor, Jay Leno, for example; Leno dug into the Keating Five issue long before Carson would ever touch it, he recalls.

He says if you took Gallup polls of when the American public turned against the Vietnam War or Richard Nixon, you would probably find that Carson started hammering them in his monologues at precisely the same moment.

"He doesn't have a pollster," Balkin says, "and that was his genius."

Carson has dished out insults fairly evenly to Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives.

Here are some examples from recent monologues, as reported in The Hotline:

On the recent weight gain of Democrat Bill Clinton -- who acknowledged trying marijuana long ago but claimed he neither inhaled nor liked it: Carson said Clinton had recently eaten french fries, two cheeseburgers and a pizza -- "He ate them, but he didn't enjoy them." (April 8)

"In a startling revelation, Jerry Brown admitted that he tried pot in the '60s, but didn't exhale." (April 2)

On criticisms of maverick H. Ross Perot's recusing himself from media scrutiny to work on policies: "It's only fair -- we've given Bush four years." (May 6)

On Bush's trip to L.A.: "To bone up on the `black experience,' he watched three episodes of `Fresh Prince of Bel Air.' " (May 6)

"The same team that located Amelia Earhart is now going in search of the Pat Buchanan campaign." (April 10)

On a recent political dinner: "For $15,000 you could sit next to a congressman, for $20,000 you could own him. ... For $20,000 you could have lunch with [Vice President Dan Quayle]; for $40,000 you could get out of it." (April 29)